Week 9: Connectors for AV & Stage

Visually identifying connectors and their associated connection points are paramount to the engineer that must "patch" or "pin" the stage. It's not unusual for bands to have as many as 48 inputs. It's even more common to have several bands sharing the bill that all require very large numbers of channel inputs and carry all their own mics and DI's etc. Generally, this is accommodated by planning ahead via documentation of your signal path and using the artist's stage plots, using your resources in smart ways, and having plenty of XLR cables. 

In this course, we will examine the wide range of connectors used in professional AV, the signals they are designed to carry, and the workflow methods you will need to use when you have multiple bands on a stage. What's known as "the patch" has gotten more than a few engineers in big trouble when they didn't write it all down! It can be complicated and messy and if you don't get it right the first time the performance can be ruined to some degree!